Barleycorn not dead

I was perplexed by Sidney Jacobs' claim (Letters, December 16) that Roland Rance had made a "moral equivalence" between the Holocaust and Palestinian dispossession in 1948 (Letters, December 14). Rance's letter was about the justifiable moral outrage at Holocaust denial versus the pseudo-scholarship and punditry that denies or downplays the reality of the Naqba. Anyone can feel good for condemning the anti-semitic blatherings of Iran's president, but to then offer up an encouragement to complacency in the face of other injustices is, to use Jacob's adjective,"grotesque".
Richard Bartholomew Osaka, Japan

Can we kill the misconception that the residents of Wigan are known as "pie eaters" because Wigan is the "capital of pies" (Shortcuts, G2, December 16). It is actually a term of abuse given to them by miners and trade unionists in Lancashire because in the 1920s the Wigan miners were forced back to work before the strike was over. As a result, they were said to have "eaten humble pie".T Hall Manchester

Shoe sizes increase by one-third of an inch, not by half an inch (Letters, December 14). So the sock size 11 is one and one-third inches longer than a size 7. When I studied shoe manufacturing I was told that the shoe-size system was based on the barleycorn, which is an old English measure equalling one third of an inch.Lawrence Rigal London

Well, at least it's comforting to know that the Tories' new leader is "No Mr Ace" (Letters, December 16).Peter Stewart London

I wonder if David Cameron ever had a holiday romance in Menorca.George Kitchin Penrith, Cumbria

So Imperial College is to break away from London University (Report, December 10). I don't know to what extent your correspondence on mint imperials has influenced this decision but I hope you're satisfied.Neville Denson St Bees, Cumbria